Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/99

 painted in water-colours, mostly portraits of his friends. During his whole life Fox never ceased to take interest in floriculture, and was considered one of the best judges of flowers. When Dr. John Lindley [q. v.] was appointed superintendent of the Horticultural Society, Fox was chosen as judge and arbitrator, in which capacity he gained universal esteem. He superintended the illustrations of the ‘Florist.’ While on a visit to a friend at Leyton in Essex, Fox died from an affection of the heart on 28 Feb. 1849. He was engaged on an engraving of Mulready's ‘The Fight Interrupted,’ which remained unfinished at his death. A portrait of Fox was etched from a drawing by W. Carpenter, jun. for publication in the ‘Florist.’

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Ottley's Dict. of Recent and Living Painters; Cunningham's Life of Sir David Wilkie; Gent. Mag. (1849), new ser. xxxi. 434; Florist, 1849; other obituary notices.] 

FOX, CHARLES (1810–1874), engineer, youngest of four sons of Francis Fox, M.D., was born at Derby 11 March 1810. He was originally destined for his father's profession, but abandoned this intention as his taste for mechanics developed. He was deeply interested in the projected scheme for the Liverpool and Manchester railway, and at the age of nineteen he was articled to Captain Ericsson. With Ericsson he was engaged in designing and constructing the ‘Novelty’ engine, one of the three which competed at Rainhill in October 1829. He was also employed with Ericsson in experimenting with rotary engines. His mechanical talents having attracted the attention of Robert Stephenson, he was appointed by him one of the constructing engineers of the London and Birmingham railway. He designed the tunnel at Watford, and afterwards carried out the extension of the line from Camden Town to Euston Square. These works were wholly constructed within a covered way and retaining walls, thus realising for the first time the idea of a metropolitan railway. While engaged on this line Fox read a paper before the Royal Institution upon the correct principles of skew arches, which he had carried out in the works. The new mechanical departure was the development of these arches, not from the intrados or the extrados, but from a line midway between the two. Fox now entered into partnership with the contractor Bramah, and upon the retirement of the senior partner the firm assumed the title of Fox, Henderson, & Co. of London, Smethwick, and Renfrew. This firm was the first to carry out the manufacture of railway plant and stock upon a complete and systematic plan. Great improvements were effected in bridges, roofs, cranes, tanks, and railway wheels. Fox was the inventor of the system of four feet plates for tanks, combined with a very simple formula for calculating weight and contents. He also introduced the switch into railway practice, thus superseding the old sliding rail. Many improvements in iron structures were due to him, and in connection with his experiments upon links he read a paper before the Royal Society (March 1865) ‘On the Size of Pins for connecting Flat Links in the Chains of Suspension Bridges.’ From 1857 Fox practised in London as a civil and consulting engineer, with his two eldest sons, the firm still being known under the style of Sir Charles Fox & Sons.

During the forty-five years of his professional life Fox was engaged in works of magnitude in all parts of the world. His chief undertaking was the building in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851, designed by Paxton. This work was begun towards the end of September 1850, and finished before the close of April 1851, Fox having been engaged exclusively upon it for eighteen hours a day during a period of seven weeks. Together with Cubitt and Paxton he received the honour of knighthood (22 Oct. 1851) in connection with the exhibition. Fox's firm afterwards removed the building from Hyde Park and re-erected it, with many alterations and improvements, at Sydenham for the Crystal Palace Company. Fox was a consistent advocate for economy in railway construction, and it was through his exertions that the ‘light railway’ clauses were inserted in the Railway Facilities Act. In conjunction with G. Berkley he constructed the first narrow-gauge line in India. He made a special study of the narrow-gauge system, and eventually constructed lines upon this principle in various parts of the world. While strenuously advocating the narrow-gauge system, however, Fox was strongly opposed to break of gauge, except under special circumstances. His main principle was ‘to retain the gauge of the country, and to reduce the weight on the engine wheels to the same as that on the wheels of the stock, to limit the speed, and then to reduce the weight of the permanent way and other works.’ He was also in favour of vertical rails and cylindrical tyres.

The works executed by Fox as a manufacturer and contractor include the bridge over the Medway at Rochester; three bridges over the Thames, at Barnes, Richmond, and Staines; the swing bridge over the Shannon; a bridge over the Saône at Lyons; and the